


To Share, But Not to Chain

by CountDorku



Series: Glimmadora Week 3: The Monster Is Loose [3]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, Glimmadora Week 3, Kinda, Memories, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:00:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27861949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CountDorku/pseuds/CountDorku
Summary: Adora thinks about what Glimmer really means to her.
Relationships: Adora/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Series: Glimmadora Week 3: The Monster Is Loose [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035966
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	To Share, But Not to Chain

Adora threw her pencil across the room and cursed. She’d been trying to come up with a proposal, something to say that wasn’t just, “Hey, I think you’re amazing, let’s get married maybe.”

She’d asked Bow for advice; the archer had only said, “Think about what Glimmer means to you, what she _really_ means to you, and then tell her that.”

For all that it sounded good, it had given her a two-day bout of writer’s block, holed up in the Brightmoon library while Glimmer dealt with her royal duties. Hence the pencil-throwing.

Meaning. Maybe that meant _specifics._ (Well, generalities weren’t working. She might as well go with specifics.)

Glimmer. What did that name mean to her? What memories did that bring up?

A camp, just the two of them, on the edge of the Whispering Woods. Glimmer had taught her an old love song from Brightmoon, one of her mother’s favourites. (When they’d gotten back, she’d learned that it was also one of Bow’s.)

_A song of the heart._

The Great Race. On a blustery day after Glimmer’s coronation, but before Elberon and the pain that it led to, they’d taken her newly enhanced powers for a spin. Adora had been riding Swift Wind; Glimmer had been using her teleports. Bow had put together a course for them, requiring skill and precision as much as speed, and they’d done a few laps.

_A race in the wind._

The nightmares. They’d been so common, early on, especially after Mystacor – but Glimmer had soothed her, helped her sleep peacefully.

_A light in the dark._

That was Glimmer: someone who let her be herself, heal and grow at her own pace, someone who had clawed her a space to just be herself.

_That’s freedom._

Beast Island. The vines grabbing at her body, draining her will. If it hadn’t been for Glimmer, for her memories of the Princess of Brightmoon, she’d have died, and the moons alone knew what might have happened then.

_A reason to live._

The days before they figured out where they were and what they meant to each other: Glimmer, afraid of a lonely life as queen after she and Bow had admitted to themselves that they were better off as friends, and Adora, still mourning whatever she’d had with Catra even as she knew it was for the best. Brightmoon had been buffeted by a three-day storm, and Bow had been off visiting his dads; they’d had nothing to do but spend time in each other’s company and piece what they’d had back together after the fights and the pain and the mistakes they’d both made.

_And after the rain, rekindle the spark._

That was Glimmer: someone she knew she could rely on, someone who had her back. Even when they’d been at loggerheads, she knew that Glimmer had always had the best of intentions; they’d just been too caught up in themselves to really see the other’s fear and pain. Well, _that_ was a mistake they weren’t going to make again.

_That’s freedom._

That first moment, the true birth of the Best Friends Squad and, eventually, her and Glimmer’s feelings for each other:  
“How do you know you can trust me?”  
“I don’t know. But I hope I can.”

_It’s a measure of trust, when love is alive._

The Fright Zone, when Glimmer had first descended on Shadow Weaver in a meteoric blaze of righteous fury, then gently held Adora as she’d awoken from the sorceress’s spell.

_It’s tender and tough._

That was Glimmer: a warrior who would always fight for her, and who she would fight for in turn. Back to back against the Horde, or the lesser but more numerous threats of peacetime.

_That’s freedom._

Everything they’d worked through, from Thaymor, to the war, to their breakups. There were challenges, of course there were – unambiguously happy storybook endings, where nothing could go wrong, were the stuff of, well, storybooks. Love wasn’t a single delirious moment, like that brief, euphoric high after Horde Prime’s defeat. It was about facing the challenges together, working through them and remembering that what they had was worth fighting for.

_It’s all love is about._

Her breakdowns. Sometimes, her past swamped her. Memories of Shadow Weaver’s manipulations or Catra’s claws surged out and choked her. Glimmer was almost always there to hold her, to reassure her that she wasn’t weak for showing weakness. That her scars didn’t stop her from being beautiful. That these old wounds, even if they never truly healed, would get better – but on their own time, and that was okay.

_The opening up and letting it out._

That was Glimmer: someone who made her feel like she could get better, like the darkness she'd endured wouldn’t define her forever.

_Let freedom ring._

She went to find the pencil. Maybe there was something in there she could work into a halfway coherent proposal.

**Author's Note:**

> So, not-so-fun story: I had originally written a different story for this prompt, set shortly after season 4, using Sia's "To Be Human".
> 
> Two days after I wrote it, Sia made it impossible for me, as an autistic person, to feel good about endorsing her music by using it as a skeleton for a fic.
> 
> So I wrote this one instead. I think it actually turned out a little better, since I wasn't trying to clumsily work the lyrics into the dialogue.
> 
> The song in question is "That's Freedom" by John Farnham, performed by him [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZIbpexA4g8); Delta Goodrem also did a version, [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3Kbzzpy-0s).


End file.
